Whats this metal from my differential?

MaloStapalo

Release the Kraken
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Веил, колорадо
Recently I had new revolution axle shafts installed on my dana 44 since I had a small leak passenger side at the wheel seal from the oem. Everything has been feeling normal and lockers still work like they should.

I drained my diff to put in new oil and these were stuck to the magnetic drain plug. Are they a chewed up shim? The carrier wasn't removed for the axle shaft change and I really dont want to pull my diff cover. I am doing a regear and overhaul next spring so as long as nothing is in danger of exploding I can rest easy.
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If you are against pulling the cover.

Toss oil in it and forget about it.

You can guess all you want but without a physical inspection you wont know for sure.
 
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Looks like a shim. When was the last time the carrier was pulled and why was it taken out?

Carrier has never been pulled. The only thing that has changed was the install of new revolution axle shafts. OEM gears, oem lockers, I changed the oil about 5 months ago when i went to an armored diff cover. That's why i cant figure out where it's from.
I'm not really sure what to do.
If you are against pulling the cover.

Toss oil in it and forget about it.

You can guess all you want but without a physical inspection you wont know for sure.

I'm not against it. I just wont be able to see anything without removing the locker which I cant do.
 
I'm not against it. I just wont be able to see anything without removing the locker which I cant do.

What you can see is the ring and pinion teath and you will also be able to see if anything is sticking out from were the shims sit. Also if there is more metal in the bottom of the dif that might get kicked up cause damage.
 
Your sure the gears are still 4.10? That is not a factory shim.

I maybe shouldn't say never since I dont have the full history of it since I bought it in April. To my knowledge the carrier havnt been pulled, it feels like it has the oem 4.10 gears with 33"s and at 8k feet elevation. This is from June when I had the cover off.
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Looks like a shim. It also looks like the diff has been disassembled at one time. Those "Z" markings on the housing and caps aren't factory. We always mark the side and orientation of the caps when pulling them.
 
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Looks like a shim. It also looks like the diff has been disassembled at one time. Those "Z" markings on the housing and caps aren't factory. We always mark the side and orientation of the caps when pulling them.

So what's really my options here? Im out of budget for any more work this year on the jeep. Are we talking possible damage to the gears, or damage to the oem locker, or grenading and locking up taking my new axle shafts with it?
 
So what's really my options here? Im out of budget for any more work this year on the jeep. Are we talking possible damage to the gears, or damage to the oem locker, or grenading and locking up taking my new axle shafts with it?
How many miles have you put on the Jeep?

To satisfy curiosity, it would be interesting to confirm the gearing. You can do this by spinning the tires looking at the drive shaft.
 
How many miles have you put on the Jeep?

To satisfy curiosity, it would be interesting to confirm the gearing. You can do this by spinning the tires looking at the drive shaft.

Sits at 102k right now, bought it at 96k in april. Changed the diff oil the first time at 96k also. I am regearing in the spring and doing a full rebuild when I move to 35"s.

How can I use spinning the tires and driveshaft to calculate ratio?
 
So what's really my options here? Im out of budget for any more work this year on the jeep. Are we talking possible damage to the gears, or damage to the oem locker, or grenading and locking up taking my new axle shafts with it?

The potential issue is, the shims that may have been used have fallen out of place. Would be a good idea to find out where it came from.

Since the cover is off, spin the ring gear around and see if there are numbers imprinted on it with the ratio and/or the number of teeth on the ring and pinion.
 
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The potential issue is, the shims that may have been used have fallen out of place. Would be a good idea to find out where it came from.

Since the cover is off, spin the ring gear around and see if there are numbers imprinted on it with the ratio and/or the number of teeth on the ring and pinion.

Currently cover isn't off. I found the shim stuck to my magnetic drain plug. If I pull the cover would I be able to even see where the shims go with the oem air locker?

Checked with the PO who had all the offroad stuff done that I've replaced. He said never changed the gears or pulled the carrier and he had it since 2004.
 
You've driven 7k miles since April. How much do you expect to drive it until the regear which will refresh everything? Do you see where I am going without me suggesting that you don't worry about it? ;)

I would still double check the ratio. If it is still 4.10 and that shim isn't from the setup, then it came from somewhere else...
 
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Currently cover isn't off. I found the shim stuck to my magnetic drain plug. If I pull the cover would I be able to even see where the shims go with the oem air locker?

Checked with the PO who had all the offroad stuff done that I've replaced. He said never changed the gears or pulled the carrier and he had it since 2004.
Maybe. It looks like a side gear shim. There is a style of shim that uses two thicker pieces on the outside with thinner shims sandwiched between. What can happen is the thicker part can spin against the bearing race which will tear up the thinner parts inside. Some of the shims are as thin as .003 so it is easy to distort them. The spinning of the shim comes from either too loose on side bearing pre-load or wear causing the pre-load to loosen up.
 
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Maybe. It looks like a side gear shim. There is a style of shim that uses two thicker pieces on the outside with thinner shims sandwiched between. What can happen is the thicker part can spin against the bearing race which will tear up the thinner parts inside. Some of the shims are as thin as .003 so it is easy to distort them. The spinning of the shim comes from either too loose on side bearing pre-load or wear causing the pre-load to loosen up.
Its unfortunate all the guts of the Rubicon locker are hidden away.

I have a broken spare rear that I would enjoy dissecting. I just don't have a good place to do that right now.
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You've driven 7k miles since April. How much do you expect to drive it until the regear which will refresh everything? Do you see where I am going without me suggesting that you don't worry about it? ;)

I would still double check the ratio. If it is still 4.10 and that shim isn't from the setup, then it came from somewhere else...

Probably roughly the same amount of miles. I dont go very far away from home, work is 7 miles away. I'm just concerned about damage the new shafts or the OEM locker. If all I really have to damage is the gears then I can live with that. I'll jack it up and check it, hopefully before the sun sets as it's getting cold for the day. You're thinking not to lose sleep over it?